Bases for Learning and Teaching Pgce

1. | As teachers, we gather a great deal of information about how students learn from our observations in the classroom. However, this information sometimes needs to be reinforced through more critical evaluation based on theoretical approaches.   Torraco (1997:115) defines theory as “a theory simply explains what a phenomenon is and how it works.” I aim for this assignment to explore a number of theories in relation to student motivation, learning styles and teaching approaches.   It is recognised that students learn in many different ways.   Psychologists and educationalists have attempted to investigate the reasons behind this and to formulate methodologies to maximise learning potential in all learners.   |
2. | There are several types of learning.   I believe that the most basic form is associative learning, where learning happens through making a new association between an event and the environment.   From reading I have identified that there are two type of associative learning; classical conditioning and operant conditioning. |
3. | Some early research into learning and memory began with the experiments of Ivan Pavlov (1927), who stumbled upon what is now known as classical conditioning through research into the digestive system of dogs. Pavlov noted that the dogs he was using as subjects would salivate before being fed. He began ringing a bell prior to feeding time and this presentation of a neutral stimulus (the bell) along with a stimulus of some significance (the food) he called the ‘unconditioned stimulus’ (UCS) which evoked the ‘unconditioned response’ (UCR) i.e. the salivation. After presentation of the UCS in this way for some time, the salivation would become a ‘conditioned response’ (CR). He also noted that when the subject learns that the conditioned stimulus no longer signals a desired event, the process is reversed because the connections between the two are weakened. |
4. | The theory that learning could be manipulated, measured and utilised...